Bryony and myself are off to the CODI (Customers of Dynix Inc) Conference in Minneapolis at the start of November and I’m hoping to blog as much as the conference as possible.

As there’ll be several other conference blogs, I might go for a UK slant on things – so expect stuff like “by ‘eck – it cold enough here to freeze the knickers off a vicar’s wife!” and other comments about the weather & lack of decent tea making facilities😉

At the moment, the only other blog URL I’ve got is for Kelli Staley’s ‘Brary Web Diva (www.kellistaley.com/blog.htm).

As a Brits abroad, I suspect we might have to go and gawp at the Brit’s Pub. Apparently it’s exactly like stepping into a real pub in the UK – it’s got pictures of the Royal family on the wall and a bowling green on the roof.

Bryony’s also discovered that there’s a “Hello Kitty” store in the Mall of America, so I suspect she might spend at least half of the week in there!

To anyone thinking of buying the new region 2 release of Psycho, my advice would be…

…don’t bother!

To be honest, I’m getting utterly tired of the way Universal UK is treating Hitchcock fans and this release is just another shining example of how little the UK branch of the company cares.

First of all, the film transfer is exactly the same one they used for the original 1999 release in the UK – the bitrate graphs are exactly the same.

For crying out loud – it says “SPECIAL EDITION” on the packaging! What on earth is special about re-re-releasing a 6 year old transfer that was regarded as being poor to start with?

Secondly, we have the extras… but wait, where’s the excellent 94 minute “Making of” documentary that’s been available on every US release of the DVD since 1999? Heck, it even appeared in the UK Psycho Collection set! Sadly, it’s not included in this so-called “special edition”.

Instead of that, we get the heavily edited “AFI Salute” (15 minutes instead of the original 71 minute broadcast) and the “Masters of Cinema” interviews (again, edited down to 34 minutes from the original 55 minutes).

So, don’t even think about buying this DVD – put the money towards getting the US “Masterpiece Collection” instead!